Citizenship is a fundamental issue in postcolonial educational systems. Since the country’s independence, there has been little opportunity for people to express themselves freely and few possibilities for plural expression. In fact, citizenship education has only very recently become a popular subject. Following the decoloni-sation process in Algeria, political measures were mainly aimed at building resil-ience after 132 years of colonization and the war of independence that lasted more than 7 years. Less consideration was given to the social and civil needs of the people and, as a result, the educational sector was not a priority.
Algerians suffered from the French colonization which dispossessed them of their lands and wealth, but also prevented access to education by closing all the country’s Koranic schools (Medersa). The horror of colonialism remains in Algeria’s
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collective memory, in particular the massacre 8 May 1945 that Zoubir (2011) describes as “the fierce campaign that was conducted on behalf of the French state [that] has made tens of thousands of victims. The number has never been accurately determined, although our national memory recorded symbolically 45 000 martyrs”
(p. 2). This was followed by many other tragic events such as the massacre that took place on 11 December 1960 and the murders committed by the Secret Armed Organization (OAS) between 1960 and 1962.
Moreover, colonialism has left Algerian society deeply scared. The French colo-nialism not only affected Algerian society in general but also the people’s dignity, religion, identity and citizenship. One example of the French denial of Algerian citi-zenship is the “code de l’indigénat” which placed Algerians on the same level as slaves. The colonial conquest was also responsible for the impoverishment of Algeria. As stated by Zoubir (2011), “The famine and impoverishment that fol-lowed the colonial conquest, [resulted] in the loss of one third of the native popula-tion between 1830 and 1870” (p. 2).
We believe the identity issues that the Algerian people experience today are directly linked to the French government’s refusal to recognize the crimes commit-ted during colonization. This lack of recognition is regarded as an open wound and as continued denial of Algerian national identity and citizenship. For instance, up until 1999 the French government referred to the Algerian war as simply policing.
It is fair to say that Algerians do not adhere to France’s appalling claim that coloni-zation was a civilizing mission and a means to prosperity for the Algerian population.
During the colonization of Algeria, the French colonial power massively invested in the country’s integration into the French economy, which influenced the territo-rial organization and in turn upset local social, economic, cultural, and military organization (Abedellatif 2014). This resulted in an unequal geographical distribu-tion of the populadistribu-tion with 60% of the current populadistribu-tion concentrated in only 4%
of the territory, leaving the Highlands and the South sparsely populated (Bendif 2016). This massive urbanization represents an important social and educational challenge.
It is undeniable that French colonization damaged the Algerian spirit at all levels (Abdellatif 2014) and had a considerable impact on citizenship and citizenship edu-cation. In this respect, Algeria directed its efforts towards creating a sense of national belonging following the decolonization. To do so, it was necessary to promote a shared vision of the ‘Umma’ Algerian Nation. At that time, the President Houari Boumediene’s policy aimed to create a balanced identity as well as fair and func-tional administrative, economic, industrial, social and cultural organizations. The cultural homogeneity and the multidimensional political equilibrium created in 1971 was the most credible factor of consciousness and national unity.
Since the county’s independence, leaders have created a discourse that depicts the national territory in a quasi-sacred way. Despite the political will to fairly create basic infrastructure, provide services, as well as distribute employment and resources, the means to achieving this were not sufficiently thought out and
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unfortunately generated disparities and regional imbalances that have led to divi-sions in national unity at the level of citizen consciousness.
An important element that must be taken into consideration in Algeria is Islam.
Algeria has a rich and diverse cultural heritage stretching from the regions of the great South, the southern and northern slopes of the Atlas to the Mediterranean coastal strip and the High Planes. The environmental diversity and specific histori-cal context have created cultural diversity. Despite this, Islam as the common denominator has shaped the context of everyday life and united the national con-science of Algerian citizens.
The first government after independence restored Islam and the Arabic language.
Articles 4 and 5 of the 1963 Constitution stipulate that Islam is the religion of the state and that the Arabic language is the national and official language. This was a legitimate and expected reaction after the oppressive practices of French colonial-ism but this political act denied the existence of the Tamazight-speaking Berber who constitute a third of Algeria’s population (Abdellatif 2016). Thus, postcolonial Algeria has imposed an Arab-Islamic ideology, opposing all forms of cultural and linguistic diversity. The legislative proposals of Colonel Houari Boumediene (President of Algeria from 1965 to 1978) focused on the goal of creating an “authen-tic Algeria” (Déjeux 2008, p. 5) based on a unified national culture that aimed to reinforce the Arab-Muslim national identity.
In this context of “linguistic purification” (Abdellatif 2014, p. 45), an educa-tional approach based on ‘Algerianity’, Arabization and Islamic citizenship was adopted. An ideology of monolingualism began to take hold and many feared the loss of the country’s diverse linguistic heritage. The post-colonial government intro-duced an Arabization policy into primary schools through citizenship education and tensions among the population began to spill over into the political scene and vio-lent clashes between students erupted.
The design of the national citizenship education curriculum reflected the values of the ‘Nation’ and a certain ideological, socialist and cultural approach which excludes Tamazight language and Berber culture. Under the presidency of Colonel Chadli Benjedid, the Algerian Parliament adopted on 19 August 1986 a law 86–10 creating the Algerian Academy of the Arabic Language (Grandguillaume 1997).
This forced Arabization was later recognized as a serious political mistake.
In 1995, steps were taken towards the recognition of Tamazight with the intro-duction of a number of schools and universities in the Berber region. Nevertheless, the socio-political situation was not favourable to finding a definitive solution to the Berber issue and has remained an unresolved source of conflict regarding citizen-ship and citizencitizen-ship education.
In June 1990, the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) won its first democratic munici-pal elections and a state of emergency was declared. At the same time, President Chadli was able to pass the Arabization Act on 16 January 1991 but it was post-poned several times before he was deposed by the army on 11 January 1992. After the High Security Council (HCS) cancelled the results of the elections and appointed Mohamed Boudiaf head of state, Algeria faced a destructive spiral that became known as the ‘Black Decade’. During his short mandate, Mohamed Boudiaf
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announced that the Algerian population should speak ‛Algerian Arabic’ (Derdja) and combat radical Islamism, and the efforts made towards recognizing cultural diversity and fostering citizenship were weakened.
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika acceeded to power in April 1999 and started a policy of national reconciliation and openness to the Western world. On a linguis-tic level, President Bouteflika often spoke French and demonstrated a certain amount of cultural freedom. Finally, in April 2002, the Algerian parliament changed the constitution to recognize Tamazight as a national language. Since then, Tamazight is taught in primary schools and high schools and a Tamazight bachelor degree has been created in the Universities of Bejaia and Tizi Ouzou. A further revision of the constitution in 2016 gave the status of “national and official”
language to Tamazight which was introduced into all schools in Algeria (Constitution of Algeria 2016).
Overall, from a sociological perspective, we can see that since Algeria’s indepen-dence, Colonel Boumediene’s plan to build an educational system based on a ‘pure Algerian identity’ or an ‘authentic Algeria’ has never been fully accomplished. The reason being that the break with colonial schooling has had incalculable repercus-sions on individuals, society and the Algerian educational system as a whole. The relation between national politics and citizenship were defined in the 1963 constitu-tion. From then on, the educational debates revolved around the development of curricula in line with the new principles of an independent Algeria. However, like other colonized countries, the Algerian educational system was a copy of the French system adopting a neo-colonial approach.
We can see that the intricacies of Algerian history and the country’s cultural and linguistic diversity has complexified the search for national identity and weakened the basis of citizenship education.